I was a swordsman in ancient Japan

"...It's the rotten smell of corpses." A-Ming's face darkened for a moment, and he raised his hand to cover his mouth and nose, "And... it seems to be coming from the village in front..."

"Look carefully..." Ogata on the side also said in a deep voice at this time, "There is no cooking smoke in this village... There is no smoke at all..."

"Ayi, here it is."

A-Machi took out two black handkerchiefs and handed one of them to Ogata.

"You can smell the rancid smell so far from the village... I can't imagine how stinky the village is. We'd better cover our mouths and noses with a piece of cloth."

"Thank you." Ogata took the handkerchief from A-Machi.

The handkerchief that A-Ming handed over was wide enough to cover his mouth and nose.

The two of them, who were well protected, slowly approached the village in front of them that was emitting a rotten smell...

As the distance to the village continued to get closer, Ogata slowly pulled out the sword from his waist to prepare for any eventuality.

And A-Machi also pulled out the wakizasa hanging from her lower back.

As the distance got closer, Ogata also gradually saw the whole picture of the village.

From the outside - it's just an ordinary village.It's neither too big nor too small.

However, the village looks ordinary on the outside.

The death-like silence, the lack of smoke and fire, flying flies everywhere, and blood stains everywhere... These scenes are intertwined and cast a strange atmosphere on the village.

Atachi, who was standing on the outskirts of the village with Ogata, said softly:

"There seems to be no one in this village..."

"...Go ahead and have a look." Ogata responded, "See if there are any villagers inside. If there are no villagers, then search the village to see if there is anything worth taking away, and look for this place by the way. Is there a well in this village. We both lack 2 things right now - medicine and drinking water."

"Okay." As Machi said, he tightened Wakizashi in his hand.

……

……

The two became horns of each other, and slowly stepped into this dead, smelly village.

The air in this village is filled with a suffocating stench.

Because the rancid smell was too strong, Ogata and A-Machi couldn't tell where the source of the smell was.

"This smell is really terrible..." Ah-Ming tightened the black handkerchief covering his mouth and nose, "I almost vomited because of the smell... And is it my illusion... Why do I feel like It's getting more and more stinky..."

"...No." Ogata, who has been silent since entering the village, said softly at this time, "It's not your illusion. It is indeed getting more and more stinky. And - I also discovered the reason why it is getting more and more stinky What is it?"

After saying that, Ogata pouted his chin in front of him and Tomachi.

Ah-machi looked forward.

I saw a person lying on his back on the muddy ground in front of the two of them.

No... To be precise, there is a corpse lying on its back.

Even though the distance was a little far, Ogata and A-Machi could clearly see that this corpse was already highly decomposed.

Countless flies danced and reveled on the corpse, and a lot of blood was splashed around the corpse.

"...Let's go." Ogata tightened the handkerchief on his face, "Let's go up and have a look."

"Hmm..." Ah-Ming nodded, "Let's go..."

After walking slowly to the corpse, Ogata waved his knife at the top of the corpse to drive away the clusters of flies hovering over the corpse.

While Ogata was driving away the flies, A-Machi leaned down and began to observe the corpse.

"... It's been about 6 or 7 days since I died." Ah-Ming said in a deep voice.

"It should be." Ogata nodded in response, and pouted at the corpse's right palm. "On his right palm is a callus that only a sword practicer would have? And from the size of the callus Judging from his thickness—this man is a very diligent swordsman.”

Machi continued to observe the corpse.

After a while, Ah Ding noticed a lot of strangeness on the corpse.

"Ayi, look quickly."

Machi pointed at the abdomen of the corpse.

Ogata looked in the direction that Machi's finger pointed.

I saw a very conspicuous scar on the abdomen of the corpse.

And this scar looks very much like... a bite mark.

Ogata carefully looked at the corpse several times and found that this kind of bite marks were all over the corpse.

"This guy has bite marks all over his body..." Ogata muttered. "Did he get attacked by some beast?"

"No..." Ah Ding's expression became more serious, "A Yi, don't you think these bite marks look familiar?"

"Familiar...?" Ogata once again fixed his eyes on the bite marks on the corpse, and began to observe carefully.

After taking a closer look, Ogata found that——is it really as Ah-cho said? The bite mark looks quite familiar...

——? !

Ogata's pupils shrank suddenly, and then a look of horror appeared on his face.

It is indeed as what Ah-Machi said—the bite mark is quite familiar...

Because all humans? Can make bite marks like this...

Ogata felt a bit of chill in his heart, and said in a deep voice:

"This guy... was bitten to death by humans?"

"Maybe it's an ape." A-Ming said softly. "Ape's teeth are very similar to our human teeth..."

"Is there such a vicious ape in the world...?" Ogata couldn't help muttering.

"On the contrary, I hope that this person was killed by a ferocious ape, not by a human... If he was killed by a human? That would be really terrible..."

Say it? Machi straightened up.

"Ayi? Let's stop here for the observation of this corpse first."

"This corpse is too corrupted, and the information that can be searched from it is too limited."

"And I can't stand the smell anymore..."

"Hmm..." Ogata nodded slightly, and then shifted his gaze to a thatched hut beside him.

"A corpse is just lying in the middle of the road, and no one has cleaned it up... It seems that no one lives in this village. Let's search every house in this village one by one to see if we can find it." Find something useful."

"okay."

Although the corpse at the two's feet had a sword on its waist, Ogata had no intention of taking his sword away.

Because—the knife in this man's waist was already full of corpses... For this disgusting knife, Ogata can be said to be very grateful...

Chapter 180 Searching for Supplies

boom!

Holding the knife, Ogata kicked open the door of the house in front of him.

Neither Ogata nor A-Machi rushed in rashly.

Instead, he scanned the room with alert eyes.

After confirming that there were no enemies or other messy things in the house, Ogata and A-Machi stepped into the house one after the other.

The scene inside this house gave Ogata the first impression of chaos.

Especially messy.

There are traces of rummaging everywhere.

I don't know if someone came to search for supplies before, or if the house is just so messy.

There are very few rooms in this house, only one living room.

Eating, sleeping and other matters are all settled in this living room.

Ogata noticed that there were a lot of moldy, green or purple food scattered in a corner of the hall.

However, there were no traces of blood or struggle anywhere in the room.

Looking at the pile of moldy meals, Ogata said softly:

"This family feels like they are halfway through their meal and suddenly escaped from here in an emergency."

"And this family has been away from here for a long time." A-Ming echoed.

Ogata looked around, and a scene began to be sketched in his mind: this family suddenly left their home urgently because of something while they were eating.

And when they leave home, they don't forget to take away their important belongings.

The traces of rummaging through boxes and cabinets in this house may be the traces left by this family when they searched for their own belongings.

"Let's see if there is anything useful." After saying that, Xu conveniently opened a small cabinet beside him first, and began to rummage through it for useful things.

The first person to find useful supplies was Machi.

"Ayi! Look!"

A-Machi turned around and showed Ogata what she was holding.

The thing in A-Machi's hand is a shoulder bag woven from the bark of an unknown tree and vines.

The size of this shoulder bag is acceptable, and it can hold a lot of things in it.

"Not bad." Ogata praised, "With a bag that can hold things, the two of us can save a lot of effort, and I just found a useful thing here."

Oto showed Amachi a bamboo tube as thick and long as an adult's arm in his underling's hand.

This bamboo tube was originally used to hold salt.

Although the bamboo tube is empty except for some salt residue, it can be used as a kettle for water.

Apart from this shoulder bag and this bamboo tube, the family had no other useful things, so Ogata and A-machi quickly left the place and headed for the next house.

boom!

Ogata kicked open the door of the next house again.

But this time the house was not so harmonious.

The moment the door was kicked open by Ogata, a corpse lying on the mud behind the door appeared in front of Ogata and Atachi.

This corpse had also begun to decompose, but it was much better than the corpse that Ogata and the others saw in the middle of the road just now.

"This man is not only wearing armor, but also has a sword on his waist," Ogata said with a frown.

The armor on this man was very familiar to Ogata. When he got off the boat yesterday, the armor provided to him by the government was this style.

"Is this person a prisoner who landed on the island or a soldier of the shogunate?" A-cho asked Asaogata.

"It should be a prisoner who landed on the island." Ogata pointed at the open right palm of the corpse, "There are no calluses and scars on the palm of this person who have practiced weapons. He has also been dead for some time. The man should be one of the last batch of prisoners who landed on the island."

The degree of decay of this corpse is not too bad, so Ogata and A-Ming found more things from this corpse that they couldn't see on the corpse lying in the middle of the road before.

This corpse had many bite marks like the one that Ogata and the others found in the middle of the road in the village just now.

But other than that, Ogata and Acho also found many scratches.

And these scratches are very similar to the marks made by human fingers

Ogata and A-Machi felt a chill in their hearts almost at the same time

"This man has a knife in his waist." Acho asked Asaogata, "Do you want to take it?"

"No." Ogata said without thinking, "Didn't you see that the handle of the knife was already soaked in corpse water? Hurry up and go into the house to find supplies."

The house appears to be the home of the village doctor.

Although there was a strong smell of corpses in the air, besides the smell of corpses, Ogata and A-Machi could barely smell a trace of medicine.

After smelling the smell of the medicine, Ogata and A-Machi showed surprise on their faces.

The two most lacking supplies are two kinds of medicine and drinking water.

Realizing that there might be a lot of medicines in this house, Ogata and A-Machi immediately began to rummage through the house.

After a while, the two dug out all kinds of bottles and jars that exuded the smell of medicine from every corner of the house.